


Without Time

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 11:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17222801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Sitting on the pier, his hair and trousers soaked, with the hot sun beating down on him, time was the last thing on David’s mind.





	Without Time

Sitting on the pier, his hair and trousers soaked, with the hot sun beating down on him, time was the last thing on David’s mind. It had been the last thing on David’s mind when he’d allowed Jack to convince him to put his papers off to the side and jump into the river. He’d worried about how angry his mother would be when he showed up at home in damp clothes, and almost relished the idea of doing something fun that he wasn’t supposed to, just this once. He’d worried about not knowing how to swim, but Jack had promised that he’d teach him, that it was instinctive anyway, that he could at least hold onto the edge of the dock and cool off.

It was only on the way home, that David noticed that the sun was setting, and began to wonder about just how late it was getting. He reached into the pocket for his watch. His stomach sank, and his mouth went dry. Opening it up confirmed his fears,

“It says it’s one forty-five,” David whispered, glaring at Jack, who’d gotten him into this, after all.

“Anniversary of the first time I got you into the water?” Jack suggested. “You’ll get to remember it,” he paused like he was counting on his hands, “every twelve hours, huh?”

“It’s not funny,” David grumbled. He felt lost without his watch. He’d had since the day he began school, a gift from his father.

The idea stayed with him, though. His personal sense of time may have been stopped the moment he agreed to follow Jack into the river, but it only made him more aware of clocks around him, the ones that he now relied on to tell him where he was in his day, because he didn’t have his own. It wasn’t only one forty-five that got him. It was two o'clock, and one thirty, one twenty-seven, two fifteen… after all, the whole escapade with him and Jack hadn’t taken just a single minute. Often he thought about the rush of doing wrong, but sometimes he thought of cool relief and the sunburn that followed. Mostly he thought about Jack’s body close to his side, as the held onto the edge of the dock, and then Jack’s hand on his arm, as the other boy convinced him to let go of the edge and swim out further.


End file.
